, 1887-11-24

1t was saddening to turn from the cripple
to the others. Many Of them were equally
gifted intellectually, yet they had never at
tanned his contentment with his lot.
A man in a rough jacket, with q careless
air, which was contradicted by his face, said:
well, L fancy have had a wider experience
than any of you, If change of employment
gives experience. There arc few things /
have not tried, but 1 never succeeded in any.
1 have been an orrand boy, a pillow boy, q
pcddler, a miner, an engineer and an express
man. 1 have written dismal trash to sell to
vllely cheap and mean papers. 1 nave taught
grown men to read in exchange for a crust
of bread. / have distributed advertisements
at street corners; and now 1 am Just where 1
was when l started l have no home. left
my last boarding place without paying, but
left my only good coat behind instead. l
slept last night in a car depot, and picked up
q few cigar ends to keep the hunger of this
morning. 1 would take any job; but people
don't seem to want jobs done just now. They
look at me suspiciously and say: There's
lots of work if you only bestir yourself and
look for it.'n
"You and 1 are much alike,n said a man
opposite. 81 have looked for work both in
and out of my profession. am a musician,
young and unknown. have heard you ali
talk of being poor, but when q man loses
huAJ u POo9lOlS bOOu CuliuCt III MS business
through the want of a postage stamp at the
right time, 1 tell you he knows something of
poverty, though he may have a good coat on
his back In our profession poverty is a mat
ter of course. We may be oven famous and
starve. Meanwhile l am obliged to keep up
appearances and live in a decent house.n
YES" said a woman near him, "and I dare
say not your VI house. Well, if poor
boarders have their troubles, don't think
that h hAa-1f-- L@...-
bed of roses. There is a hopeless side to pow
erty, and a contented side, and an expectant
side. But 1 know of another. 1t is the ludi-
crous side. My husband died in debt. There
was only the weary old way to support my
self. 1 opened a boarding house. 1
wish ladies could go lower down to
make money. 1 had not the strength
of mind to do differently from others
of my sct, and 1 think with us women
that is one of tho great causes of our
troubles. We don't dare to lace the worlds
talk, even when there is nothing to be
ashamed of. had a hard time with inefl-
cient servants, for / did not thrive and could
not pay high enough prices to secure good ones.
But l sent for two of my nieces, as poor as nv
self, and together We did the work and shared
the profits. Let me say to you that il you
are poor and have tolerable health, do your
own work. By that means. we got on and
had order and cleanliness, and though life is
not exactly delightful to us, it is tolerable.
AS to the ludicrous side of poverty. We
SEQ enough of it. So many little shifts and
pretenses, though they are pathetic enough
sometimes. l began by asking rather high
prices, and if they were refused, let the
rooms stay empty. But my purse began to get
empty too, and l was obliged to compromise.
Sometimes / did not like a mans manner or
a woman's costume, and 1 was stiff, which
lost mo considerable money. Then again,
some mems business was not to ny taste,
though they were very silent and unobtrusive
themselves. lost many a good boarder the
first year by standing too much on
my dignity. If a dancing master
generally teaches department. to his
pupils, I think some one should
teach q bankers daughter, in view of certain
possibilities, how to attract and deal pleas
antly with boarders. If it were not q good
thing to be merry under the worst circurn-
stances, l should not detain you SO long with
my experiences; but if We persistently ignore
the humor that is concealed in almost every
stage of poverty, we are making ourselves
moro miserable than God intended us to be.n
Then she went on to enumerate the ludicrous
incidents which her poor boarders treated
her to day by day.
"If money troubles were everything said
a moody man, 'you would all be quarreling
who was the worst Off among you. You
might be rich in money, and yet broken and
worthless
Ny host whispered to inc that this man
had lost his faith in woman. Then he
pointed out q pale woman in good but not
snowy clothing, who was yet more wretched
than the poorest at the feast. Her husband
cared nothing for her. She was dying of a
broken heart. Just opposite her were a man
orl Np1fnon u-hNrn M -aos+.1 ---- i
affect. Their only child had been suddenly
killed q few weeks before.
My friend pointed out a man at the bottom
of the table. He had an uneasy eye and q
restless conscience. asked what this man
had done.
Set traps for the feet of Others" said nv
host. SIN old times, legends say, men sold
their own souls. He has sold those of others.
Anciently, to trample on the Cross was the
worst sacrilego a man could commit; but
he has trampled beneath his feet the very
image of God. Such as he are called men
about town. l need not tell you more.n
Near him sat a woman with n faded shawl,
q soiled and raliish bonnet, brazen face and
dirty hands. No teaching, no help, no good
example, no chance of good had ever come to
her. And there was q woman In a Parisian
dinner dress who sat between two men Of the
homeless kind in upper life-the lay figures
of society. She was more hopeless looking
than her neighbors. She had no work. No
object save pleasure ever stirred her.
Then my host told mo in low tones, while
the others were talking among themselves,
how he had gathered these people together
for this extraordinary Thanksgiving feast.
Some he Ind met by accident. Others he
hunted up, going into dismal places to find
them. The most despairing were the ones he
chose. He said:
ITO some l sent formal invitations by post.
1 knew it would please them. The invitation
itself, put in language they had not known
for years, would be more of n blessing than
the nero feast to which they were hidden.
The moral pleasure given, or the self respect
induced by these invitations, is more than
half the boon Of my Thanksgiving feast. To
a few the nero food is much, hut then to
those far sunk in the mud, animal comfort
must pre2ede a moral impression. When